Who are we?

Anna and Olof met in the bustling city of London. It was in the Leather Bottle pub in Earlsfield to be precise.
They were both very much caught up in the race to reach the top of the career ladder in the media and advertising industries.
A career opportunity led them to move to Gibraltar, where they spent six amazing years living the expat lifestyle whilst working hard during the week and exploring the surrounding area of Andalusia and Morocco on the weekends. During this time Olof stumbled across Permaculture and learned about the peek oil crisis, which spurs them in to action to find a farm and get off the grid. They where both in love with Spain so it was the obvious place to settle and after months of searching they find “THE DREAM FARM”.
A down payment was placed on a beautiful rustic finca in the Los Alcornocales National Park, it was perfect. But a series of events unfolded which resulted in the farm being sold to another buyer. Anna and Olof were devastated at first, but as with so many things in life, permaculture had the answer…

“The problem is the solution”With no farm, no children, no animals and no commitments, Anna and Olof were free to pursue their other life long dream of travelling the world. Now they could combine it with searching for that dream farm whilst learning about permaculture along the way. Thus the epic journey called The Ecoquest begins!

Anna, is now a fully fledged world explorer with the super powers to find the most amazing spots on the planet. With years of experience at the top of the corporate world, Anna has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to everything needed to run a successful business, be it online, on TV or in retail. Anna is motivated, engaged and focused to any task at hand.

Olof is an enthusiastic team player who gets stuck into whatever gets thrown at him. A Permaculture addict, he can recite all the words to Geoff Lawton’s videos. A long and successful career in the Graphic Design business has given him an edge in the Permaculture world when it comes to main frame design and creative problem solving. His new motto “the problem is the solution”

About The eco quest

Our quest is to travel the world as ecologically sound and economically efficient as possible, In search of a real treasure: a deeper understanding of permaculture, self-sufficiency, and a healthier way of life for us and the planet. Most of all we want to find and build our dream home. We intend to do all this whilst enjoying the adventure of a lifetime.

Learn More Permaculture

Learn hands on permaculture by Wwoofing, interning, attending eco-courses and helping out on homesteads and farms in exchange of deeper understanding of permaculture, biodynamic farming, eco building and other cutting edge eco practices. The idea is basically to learn vital skills for a uncertain future, “pump some iron” get fit by farming, building etc.. and become extremely healthy by eating the most organic locally grown food on the planet.

Have an adventure!

Hopefully we will encounter interesting new people, make new friends, learn about other cultures
and see things from new point of views. We will try to join in local festivities, traditions and whatever interesting events that pop up in our path. Perhaps do some capoeira in brazil or have a jungle party with some random indigenous tribe or partake in the october fest in germany who knows!

Find a home

The final goal of our trip is to choose a suitable place with a vibrant eco-community for us to get settled in and create our own garden of eden and live in absolute abundance in line with nature. So we will be looking at real-estate and book viewings to see what bang you can get for your buck in the different countries we visit.

Record it all

We aim to blog, photograph and create a documentary film about our travels. we want to talk to the people we encounter along the way. Ask them about their transition to a sustainable, peaceful lifestyle with out the stressful toxic elements of “modern” society.the goal is to inspire others, show the latest innovations in the ecosphere and push permaculture in to in to the mainstream.

BLOG

This is The Wheaton Eco Scale I made it for Mr Paul Wheaton over at permies to illustrate his idea that when you are on this eco path some people that are ahead of you seem crazy and some people that are behind you look stupid but… But one day you might be that crazy […]

To bring our 3 week stay in Portugal to a crescendo, we had decided to spend our final day in the Parque Nacional Peneda-Gerês. Not only was this National Park supposed to be one of the most beautiful in Portugal, but it would also enable us to take the scenic route into Spain. As we […]

After raking up a £42.88 toll bill over the previous 19 days, and with only 2 days left in Portugal a “Toll Road Ban” had probably been realised a little late in the day, but we were thankful of our decision, back road driving made for a much more pleasant journey. Our next stop was […]

I’m not a fan of city driving, especially city’s I have never been to before, which is why I’d made a conscious decision to book accommodation just outside Porto city centre. Thankfully the rain had eased as we approached Porto and just when it seemed like we had arrived without any hitches and a normal […]

Whilst waking up in a Kings Palace may not be very Eco (although if I had to make an argument to the contrary I’m sure I’d be able to make some sound Eco justifications), it does feel very nice. My first desire was to run out onto our overly large terrace, just to confirm that […]

Today I had planned a total surprise for Olof, so whilst I didn’t want to make the day feel rushed we did need to have a pretty early breakfast. Enjoying the freshly baked croissants and bread it seemed a shame to be leaving Sintra, one night wasn’t really enough here. It was a beautiful town […]